I thought this was a good image to end the year on. 2017 was not a vintage year. It was a year of business successes and some notable personal losses. That is, I suppose, life.

If you've listened to DOWN RANGE Radio over the years, you know that I'm loathe to do New Year's Resolutions, and I don't think I'll be changing that for 2018. I'm usually spectacularly depressed on December 31, then irrationally exuberant on January 1. A whole new slate! A blank chalkboard! I new piece of paper I haven't doodled all over! A fresh roll of toilet paper…or something like that.

I have big plans for 2018, including the significant expansion of SGO, SHOOTING GALLERY ONLINE (Marshal and I have some surprises in store for you!); the launch of John Carter, Max Prasac and my handgun hunting series; the best season of THE BEST DEFENSE ever…Producer Jeff Murray and I have been cooking up some spectacular "big box" ideas.

Of course, SHOOTING GALLERY will begin filming for Season 19 – imagine that! John Carter and I are already doing some preliminary planning. Competition-wise we're looking at going heavy on the Aguila Cup clays/3-Gun and RIMFIRE CHALLENGE match in Texas, with Jeff Cramblit as one of our crash test dummies. We're also reaching out to the organizers of the big Second Chance bowling pin match in June, headed up by no less than Richard Davis…we've never covered a bowling pin match on SG, even though you can argue that pin shooting was in many ways the true precursor of the practical shooting sports. Watch for our 10mm special and a couple of foreign trips…hopefully, I can take you inside the spectacular Wallace Collection in London, which I visited 2 weeks ago.

I'm going to be continuing along the big bore handgun path on SG. We're also looking at some of the challenges of long-range handgun shooting. Lots of other cool stuff.

Personally, I'm shifting directions a little and getting back to cowboy action shooting. 3-Gun has really died off in Colorado…there doesn't seem to be nearly as many matches as there were a couple of years ago. I know some of the local match directors, and the complexity of 3-Gun matches has just burned them up.

After a couple of years of focusing on my rifle shooting, I'm looking at more of a focus on revolvers, boomers for hunting and DAs for competition. A lot of my personal projects you'll see on SGO.

Richard Mann and I, the Abbott and Costello of the hunting community, will be heading back to Africa in June for Cape Buffalo with 45/70 Marlin Guide Guns, guided by our great friend Geoffrey Wayland at Ft. Richmond Safaris. There's a couple of slots left on that trip if you'd like to join us. Trust me, it will be the experience of a lifetime. I'm scheduled to spend a week at GUNSITE in the spring working with my GP-100. I suspect I'll go back in May and tune up on the African hunting simulation course. As I think I may have mentioned, the guys at Wild West Guns in Vegas are building me a "training rifle," a Marlin 44 Magnum set up like the 45/70 Guide Gun, which uses Wild West parts. I've always got lots of .44 Magnum/Special around the Secret Hidden Bunker and I'm always set up to reload it. Give me a chance to try out some optics options for the Africa trip…again, as I think I mentioned, I'm leaning toward either a tube Aimpoint or the new low magnification Nightforce 1-8X illuminated. With my ass on the line, my inclination is to go with something I trust implicitly.

I have several custom guns in the pipeline in addition to the Wild West Marlin. Hamilton Bowen has a 10mm Ruger Blackhawk withe the spare 40 S& W cylinder. The main cylinder is being rebored to 10mm Magnum, a pretty interesting cartridge, with the other cylinder being cut for 38-40, one of my long-time favorite cartridges. J.D. Jones at SSK Industries is putting a T'SOB scope base on my Ruger Bisley .454…I just didn't like the other options for scope mounts, especially against a heavy recoiling .454. I've used the T'SOB base, and it is bullet-proof. I suspect my old .500 Magnum S&W will end up going to him as well.I have an FN .308 with Short Action Customs being turned into a 6mm Creedmoor.

Despite the repeated encouragements from my pal John Snow at OUTDOOR LIFE, I do not have a 22 Nosler in the works! OTOH, I've reached out to JP at JP Rifles about a .224 Valkyrie, as I have a 6.8 SPC that has been sort of sidetracked. We got it years ago for a specific show, and because the show got delayed we ended up buying the thing.

I just picked up the full-house Wilson Combat Glock 19, which you'll be seeing pretty soon on SGO. It is a VERY NICE GUN!

I see that Liam Neeson, the Brit movie star that uses his bully-pulpit of celebrity to campaign AGAINST the Second Amendment and YOUR right to keep and bear arms, has a new movie out called The Commuter. And oh yeah, he's using guns to defend his family and himself. Remember to NOT go and see it, subscribe to it, download it, etc.

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Not only did the Scots surrender their freedom to Great Britain by voting to remain "hooked to the Queen's teat"; a chance they had to take it back without spilling more blood; now, they're willing to give away their whole country too. The kilts have become skirts.

I woke up this morning looking as I do in the morning thru the obits...Damn if it ain't a sad day reading that African PH Harry Selby passed away. RIP sir. One of the truly great hunter/guides of African post war years. Had connections to the opening of the African veldt going back to TR and the great safaris of yesteryear. Man oh man, I have seen the transiting of a different age. A GREAT age might I say.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/20/obituaries/harry-selby-dead.html?

And this on the anniversary of the battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879 during the Zulu Wars. Gonna have to fire up the DVD player and watch the movie Zulu...

Just watched this short video posted by Ed Griffin (author of classic Fed Reserve Bank book). Interview with KGB defector on how communists conquer a nation. It was done in the 1980s. Scary stuff. Well worth watching.

Watch this video and you'll be further haunted. I think that it first appeared on a PBS affiliate, of all places. It is long, and there are other versions of it as well as other recordings of Bezmenov, but this version is a "must" to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3qkf3bajd4

It explains a lot and I can say as one who was around for "it" as it happened, it is hard to argue with what he is saying. It shows how we will take ourselves over. It shines new light on just what their implementation strategy was in "burying us".

Liberals are just like prison inmates serving a life sentence. After all, Liberals, Socialists and Communists ARE all prisoners in their own self-imposed social, economic, and government systems. Therefore, just a "lifers" have all the time in the world because there's nothing else to do, they take their time to work toward their goals of making everyone else a member of their (sad) "state". Somehow, they think that will make it all "ideal" and better. So, to achieve that objective, they develop implementation strategies that no matter how long they take, or how elaborate and complicated they are, they will lead to achieving their goal; Misery for everybody.

This wasn't unexpected, but it still hurts. Remington and their "holders" have not displayed the business acumen, nor their "gun-smarts" in the past decade or so to really advance the company into the 21st Century. The shooting and hunting public AND their loyal customers have suffered. Sad.

Life Member

P. S.: Remington and L. L. Bean share the same checkered quality history. Now, L. L. Bean is eliminating their "100% Satisfaction" warranty and only standing behind items that fail the first year(!). I believe that L. L. Bean will be the next "old house" to file for protection. In their case, I will not miss them.

The absence of any update's or articles on this BLOG is now very disappointing to me and I would suggest, to others as well.

In these very turbulent times, where the sage wisdom of Michael Bane is very-much sought after by us, we find an absence of such. Even past pleas for comment on similarly relevant subjects were answered with silence.

This is an opportunity for Michael to solidify facts and arguments counter to the very strong gun-grabbing opposition that appears to be gaining un-deserved enthusiasm in the populace. Any such contribution and entry by the host could very well be a single theme, or meme, cast-out to the multitudes, that changes the course of the anti-gun insanity into proposals that truly solve the problem of people killing people, or themselves.

I occasionally do listen to Michael's Podcast. They are all useful too. The ability to exchange dialog among us all is not there though. This site allows for the compression of many aspects of our discussion, all in one condensed space. I guess that I just want "it all".

I found a way to write a letter to my CA democratic senators (Feinstein, and Harris) who are both very anti-gun that may work. Below is what I wrote them. What do you think? Unlikely we could ever get a republican elected to the senate in CA BUT we might be able to get these two booted out. Fearing for their own reelection possibilities best I could come up with.

What do you think?

"Please do not support the upcoming anti-gun bills. It was failure to enforce laws on the book. New laws won't solve the problem. If you vote in favor of these laws, I will donate to the democratic candidate opposing you and vote for them. I will actively encourage my friends to vote for the other democrat as well though will cite other reasons rather than your gun vote."

MB I too supported THE TRUMPSTER. The for lots of reasons was no other option. BUT, I just watched his session today on guns and I have to say I was sickened. I believe he is NOW going to set us back 20 year on 2A rights.Sickened....if folks have not watched it here is the link....

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